The Radio Research Consortium has come up with some grpahics, based on Nielsen Data, which further shows in-car radio listening continues to look better.
The combined 44 Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM) markets show the total week Cume Persons to radio in March (Jan-Mar) 2021 decreasing by a slight 0.6% from February (Dec-Feb) 2021, but it is still 99% of the pre-pandemic March (Jan-Mar) 2020 level. At the same time, the total AQH (Persons Using Radio) decreases by 0.7% from February (Dec-Feb) 2021; it represents 95% of the March (Jan-Mar) 2020 level
The listening location percentages for total AQH to radio in March (Jan-Mar) 2021 show the percentage of listening from the Car (40.3%) getting ever closer to the Home (40.9%) percentage.
RRC graphs indicate AQH and Cume are continuing to grow:
Total market Average Quarter-Hour listening (PUMM) and total market AVG Weekly Cume also continue growing thru APR21 across 45 non-embedded PPM markets to signify radio’s recovery from COVID-19.
2020 ended on a two-quarter uptrend with FA20; however, JAN21 and FEB21 stalled radio’s recovery with a seasonal step backward.
APR21 shows that overall PUMM is now back to 89% of where it was for WI20 and AVG Weekly Cume is now back to 95%.
Olivia Rodrigo has stormed the charts—hitting No. 1 with huge streaming numbers for an album that clinches her status as one of music’s biggest new stars, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The Disney actress and pop singer-songwriter’s debut album “Sour” tops the latest Billboard 200 chart, generating the equivalent of 295,000 in U.S. sales in the week ended May 27. It is the biggest week for a debut charting album since late 2014, when Billboard began including streaming in its flagship album-sales chart, the magazine said.
Much of the 18-year-old artist’s units—218,000—came from her album’s massive 301 million first-week U.S. streams, according to MRC Data, formerly known as Nielsen Music. That is the second-biggest streaming week ever for an album by a woman, second only to Ariana Grande’s 307 million first-week streams for “Thank U, Next” in 2019. The rest of Ms. Rodrigo’s units came from traditional sales. (For Billboard, 1,250 streams by paying streaming-service subscribers, or 3,750 streams on free services like YouTube or Spotify’s ad-supported option, equals one album sale.)
Ms. Rodrigo’s No. 1 debut is the biggest week for an album so far this year, beating Taylor Swift’s rerecorded 2008 album “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” which moved 291,000 units in its opening week. “Sour,” which Ms. Rodrigo released on May 21, features “Drivers License,” the year’s biggest hit, with roughly 800 million streams on Spotify alone, and “Good 4 U”—both of which topped Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. With a blockbuster debut record, two No. 1 singles and a recent performance on “Saturday Night Live,” Ms. Rodrigo has successfully leveraged her fame from “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” into pop stardom.
She’s “the biggest breakout pop star of 2021 by far,” Chris DeVille, senior editor at the website Stereogum, wrote this month.
Ms. Rodrigo is part of a wave of new artists influenced by Lorde, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish. These rising musicians, many of them women, write raw, direct and often heartbroken songs that emphasize introspection and emotional honesty over the bombast associated with traditional pop divas. Among the newcomers is Norwegian act Girl in Red, who released her own debut album last month.
FOX News contributor Joe Concha said CNN's Chris Cuomo should have been fired or suspended "a long time ago" while discussing the latest "mess" embroiling the liberal host and his network on Monday.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper criticized Cuomo last week after he admitted to giving his brother New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., advice over handling sexual harassment allegations, saying he agreed Cuomo had put the network in a "bad spot." Concha said the trouble went back further than this month, pointing to a string of embarrassments for Cuomo and CNN since 2020.
"Think about what CNN has allowed Chris Cuomo to get away with," he said. "Remember, it was March 2020 when he got VIP COVID testing when no one else in New York could get testing when that pandemic began, courtesy of his brother."
Joe Concha
Concha also outlined other Cuomo incidents over the past year, such as his gushy interviews with his brother at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic and revelations he coached ex-Trump confidante Michael Cohen before an interview.
"All those things should have had Chris Cuomo gone or at least suspended a long time ago, and now this, advising his brother how to beat sexual harassment claims," Concha said. "It is a mess at that network at this point, and that's why in primetime they've lost more than 70 percent of their audience just from the beginning of this year."
Cuomo is CNN's top-rated host but his numbers have plummeted along with the rest of the network's in the Biden era.
CNN President Jeff Zucker admonished Cuomo for his conduct with his brother but did not formally discipline him, calling his conduct a "mistake" at a network staff-wide meeting last week. Tapper went further in an interview on the New York Times "Sway" podcast.
Cuomo's conduct has vexed other colleagues as well. A CNN source told Fox News last week "everyone is p---ed" at him.
Journalists continued to acknowledge Sunday that the media's longstanding dismissal of the Wuhan "lab-leak" theory was in part due to Republicans pitching it, reports FOX News.
Once widely cast aside as a racist "conspiracy theory" and "fringe" nonsense, the possibility that the coronavirus accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has gained increasing credence in recent weeks. The saga has led to yet another reckoning for mainstream media journalists about groupthink and bias in the industry. Faced with criticism that they blasted the theory last year for political reasons, some reporters have admitted its Republican origins with figures like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., former President Donald Trump, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo played into why they disparaged it.
ABC News Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl suggested on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that figures like Trump and Pompeo were not taken seriously by members of the media, saying "now serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry."
"Yes, I think a lot of people have egg on their face," Karl said. "This was an idea that was first put forward by Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, Donald Trump, and look some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them. Because Trump was saying so much else, that was just out of control, and because he was, you know, making a frankly racist appeal talking about Kung Flu, and the China virus, he said flatly this came from that lab, and it was widely dismissed ... but now serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry."
New York Times reporter David Leonhardt also conceded Sunday many journalists dismissed the lab-leak theory solely because Cotton, a Trump ally and longtime critic of China, proposed it.
NBC's Chuck Todd addressed the issue on "Meet The Press" Sunday, saying that "for many," the lab leak theory got "tangled up in politics" and was conflated with one theory that the Chinese released the virus deliberately.
While interviewing former Trump Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, Todd repeatedly suggested anti-China rhetoric was to blame for media dismissals of the virus.
"Did in some ways, the sort of irrational attacks on China, did that slow down efforts of the intelligence community to actually do some fact-finding?" Todd asked.
"Well, look, I think what slowed down efforts more than anything else were the early statements that were published by a few scientists dismissing the idea that it could have come out of a lab," Pottinger said. "And in fact, caricaturing people who thought that it might have come out of a lab."
Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin once again knocked the mainstream media for previously dismissing the theory that COVID-19 potentially originated from a Wuhan lab leak in China, tweeting on Saturday that journalists should "own up" when they "fail" their readers and encouraged them to "just report the facts."
"Most MSM [mainstream media] reporters didn’t ‘ignore’ the lab leak theory, they actively crapped all over it for over a year while pretending to be objective out of a toxic mix of confirmation bias, source bias (their scientist sources lied to them), group think, TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome] and general incompetence," Rogin, who was one of the very few journalists who previously reported on China's role in the pandemic and raised questions about the origins of the virus, tweeted on Saturday.
He went on to say that, "Also, the lab leak theory didn’t change. It didn’t suddenly become credible. It didn’t jump from crazy to reasonable. The theory has always been the same. The people who got it wrong changed their minds. They are writing about themselves, with zero self awareness."
Most MSM reporters didn’t “ignore” the lab leak theory, they actively crapped all over it for over a year while pretending to be objective out of a toxic mix of confirmation bias, source bias (their scientist sources lied to them), group think, TDS and general incompetence.
After a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that U.S. intelligence believes that at least three Wuhan scientists were hospitalized in November 2019 with COVID-like symptoms, much of the media has revisited the possibility that what they previously described as a "conspiracy theory" could actually be true.
NPR has tapped KPCC 89.3 FM’s A MartÃnez to become West Coast anchor of “Morning Edition,” becoming the fourth host of the drivetime news magazine, carried by 835 public radio stations nationwide.
A Martinez
He’ll join co-anchors Steve Inskeep, Rachel Martin and Noel King on the show and will also host the popular morning podcast “Up First.” He fills the vacancy left by the departure of anchor David Greene in 2020.
MartÃnez will start the new job with NPR on July 6, based at NPR West in Culver City, CA. His first day on-air will be announced in the coming weeks.
MartÃnez was a sports-talk personality, who hosted ESPN Radio KSPN- 710 AM‘s “In the Zone,” when he was hired at KPCC in 2012 to co-host a popular morning show as part of a CPB $6-million grant aimed at boosting diversity at the Los Angeles public radio station.
That grant launched the One Nation Media Project, which helped KPCC hire more Latinos and almost doubled Latino listenership from 2009 to 2015, according to a Latino Public Radio Consortium analysis published that year.
MartÃnez, whose family hails from Ecuador, acknowledges he had never listened to public radio until he was hired at KPCC.
➦In 1921...Conductor & musician Nelson Riddle was born in Oradell New Jersey. His career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. His work for Capitol Records kept such vocalists as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney and Keely Smith household names.
He found commercial and critical success again in the 1980s with a trio of Platinum albums with Linda Ronstadt. His orchestrations earned an Academy Award and three Grammy Awards.
He died of liver ailments Oct 6, 1985 at age 64.
➦In 1936...the NBC Blue network’s Lux Radio Theater moved from New York City to Hollywood. On the first show from Tinseltown, program host and “producer” Cecil B. DeMille introduced Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich in The Legionnaire and the Lady. It attracted a remarkable (for the era) listening audience of 40 million.
➦In 1945...WLB-AM in Minneapolis Minn changes call letters to KUOM.
➦In 1961..WVNJ 100.3 FM signed-on (today it is iHeartMedia's WHTZ Z100). 100.3's origins date back to 1942 when it was WMGM, licensed to New York. The station went off the air in February 1955. During 100.3's down time, the frequency was allocated to WFHA in Red Bank. On June 1, 1961, 100.3 was resurrected as WVNJ, now licensed to Newark. WVNJ featured an easy listening/jazz format that continued until August 2, 1983, when WHTZ "Z100" was born.
➦In 1961...FM stereo began. At 12:01 a.m., GE's WGFM 99.5 FM (now WRVE) Schenectady, NY became the first FM station in the United States to broadcast in stereo. The station, which had been simulcasting WGY 810 AM, started airing classical music.
The first commercial FM broadcasting stations were in the United States, but initially they were primarily used to simulcast their AM sister stations, to broadcast lush orchestral music for stores and offices, to broadcast classical music to an upmarket listenership in urban areas, or for educational programming.
By the late 1960s FM had been adopted by fans of "Alternative Rock" music ("A.O.R.—'Album Oriented Rock' Format"), but it wasn't until 1978 that listeners to FM stations exceeded those of AM stations in North America.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Top 40 music stations and later even country music stations largely abandoned AM for FM. Today AM is mainly the preserve of talk radio, news, sports, religious programming, ethnic (minority language) broadcasting and some types of minority interest music. This shift has transformed AM into the "alternative band" that FM once was.
➦In 1967...The Beatles released 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album.
➦In 1968...'Mrs. Robinson' by Simon and Garfunkel hit Number One
Don Imus
➦In 1968...Don Imus started at KUTY in Palmdale, CA. He stayed at the station until 1969 when he left for a job at KJOY, a small radio station in Stockton, California. He was later fired for saying "hell" on air. After being fired in Stockton, and in 1968 he went to KXOA in Sacramento, California.
Three years later, he landed the morning spot at WNBC in New York City before his firing in 1977.
In 1979, Imus returned to WNBC and stayed at the station until 1988 when the show moved to WFAN. Imus gained widespread popularity when the show entered national syndication in 1993. He was labelled a shock jock radio host throughout his later career and his programs have been popular and controversial.After nearly 50 years on the air, Imus retired from broadcasting in March 2018.
His on-air pranks, such as calling up a restaurant and ordering 1200 hamburgers to go, made his show immensely popular and boosted ratings. He was inspired to pursue a career in radio by listening to California radio personality Don MacKinnon. The iMan died December 27, 2019.
➦In 1969...Tobacco advertising was banned on Radio and TV stations in Canada.
In the U-S, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act banned the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio effective January 2, 1971.
Bob Crane had been called a genius in radio by his radio colleagues at WICC in Bridgeport, CT, and KNX and KMPC in Los Angeles. All sound effects, gimmicks, and voices are performed by Bob Crane (who was also known in radio as the Man of 1,000 Voices), either as pre-recordings or live right at the mic. Bringing all the pieces together, Bob transforms an otherwise bland commercial reading into a dazzling comedic performance.
In this commercial for Winston Cigarettes, he sounds as if he is carrying on a full conversation with his engineer. But in all actuality, it's all Crane.
➦In 1971...Ed Sullivan's final TV show on CBS
➦In 1980…Arthur C. Nielsen, Sr., founder of the Nielsen ratings system, died at the age of 82.
➦In 1980...CNN debuted on cable as TV's first all-news station. The Cable News Network was launched at 5:00 p.m. After an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the channel's first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the executive vice president of CNN at its launch, hired most of the channel's first 200 employees, including the network's first news anchor, Bernard Shaw.
Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite television providers, several websites, and specialized closed-circuit channels (such as CNN Airport). The company has 42 bureaus (11 domestic, 31 international), more than 900 affiliated local stations (which also receive news and features content via the video newswire service CNN Newsource), and several regional and foreign-language networks around the world. The channel's success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for conglomerate Time Warner's eventual acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. Today, the channel is owned by WarnerMedia News & Sports, a division of AT&T's WarnerMedia
A companion channel, CNN2, was launched on January 1, 1982 and featured a continuous 24-hour cycle of 30-minute news broadcasts. The channel, which later became known as CNN Headline News and is now known as simply HLN, eventually focused on live news coverage supplemented by personality-based programs during the evening and primetime hours.
➦In 1984...KWK-AM in St Louis MO changes call letters to KGLD
➦In 2014…Radio production executive Tom Rounds died. He is best known for his association with 'American Top 40'. He died of complications following surgery at 78.
Tom Rounds
After first entering the broadcasting profession at the campus radio station of Amherst College in Massachusetts in the late 1950s, Rounds worked at 1010 WINS in New York City as a newsman in 1959 before agreeing to travel to Honolulu with the station's general manager to work at station KPOI. While in Hawaii, Rounds—hoping to gain publicity for his new position as a disc jockey—set the world record for sleeplessness. The period of 260 hours awake was attained while Rounds was sitting in a department store window display. Rounds became a regional celebrity following the stunt, and eventually rose to lead the station as program director.
Ron Jacobs had been program director at KPOI before moving to KHJ in Los Angeles under influential radio programmer Bill Drake. Drake was seeking to install his signature Boss Radio format in the Bay Area in 1964; Jacobs recommended Tom Rounds for the position at KFRC in San Francisco.
While at KFRC, Rounds began promoting large multi-act concerts to benefit charity and gain publicity for the station and the bands it featured. After holding the Beach Boys Summer Spectacular at the Cow Palace in 1966, Rounds and KFRC conceived of a large outdoor festival featuring a fair atmosphere similar to the popular Renaissance Pleasure Faire. The KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival was held in the second weekend of June 1967 at Mount Tamalpais State Park in Marin County, California, to support the Hunters Point Child Care Center. Featuring Jefferson Airplane, The 5th Dimension, The Doors and many other acts, it drew nearly 60,000 attendees. The Fantasy Fair produced by Rounds is considered the first rock festival in history, preceding the more well-known Monterey Pop Festival by one week.
Rounds left KFRC in the Fall of 1967; his decision to move beyond the restrictions of AM radio was documented on the front cover of the first issue of Rolling Stone magazine, with the headline "Tom Rounds Quits KFRC" on the upper right beside a large photograph of John Lennon.
In 1969, Rounds and Jacobs formed Watermark Inc., a radio production and syndication company that created a variety of programs which it then distributed to radio stations throughout North America. The most widely recognized of the programs Rounds headed at Watermark was American Top 40, which featured the team of host Casey Kasem and producer Don Bustany. The program was popular in large markets and also allowed small market stations to present a three-hour national music chart countdown show at nominal cost that nevertheless produced good ratings and helped generate advertising revenue.
The program reached audiences at over 500 radio stations in the United States by the 1980s. The show is still in syndication, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and distributed by Premiere Networks, a division of the American media conglomerate iHeartMedia.
Morgan Freeman is 84
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Singer Pat Boone is 87.
Actor Morgan Freeman is 84.
Actor Brian Cox (“Deadwood”) is 75.
Guitarist Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones is 74.
Actor Jonathan Pryce is 74.
Actor John M. Jackson (“NCIS: Los Angeles”) is 71.
Country singer Ronnie Dunn of Brooks and Dunn is 68.
Actor Lisa Hartman Black is 65.
Heidi Klum is 48
Actor Tom Irwin (“Devious Maids”) is 65.
Bassist Simon Gallup of The Cure is 61.
Comedian Mark Curry (“Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper”) is 60.
Actor Teri Polo (“Meet The Parents”) is 52.
Model Heidi Klum is 48.
Singer Alanis Morissette is 47.
Actor Sarah Wayne Callies (“The Walking Dead”) is 44.
Comedian Link Neal of Rhett and Link (YouTube’s “Good Mythical Morning”) is 43.
TV host Damien Fahey (MTV’s “Total Request Live”) is 41.
Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.
Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.
Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.
➦In 1898...Author, Columnist and radio minister Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was born in Bowersville Ohio. For 54 years (from 1935 to 1989), Peale hosted the weekly radio program The Art of Living. He was best known for the best selling book The Power of Positive Thinking. He served as mentor to televangelist Robert Schuller. He died Dec 24, 1993 at age 95.
➦In 1908...Entertainer Don Ameche was born Dominic Felix Amici (Died at age 85 from cancer – December 6, 1993), He was an Actor, voice artist and comedian. After playing in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, he became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which led to the offer of a movie contract from 20th Century Fox in 1935.
As a handsome, debonair leading man in 40 films over the next 14 years, he was a popular star in comedies, dramas, and musicals. In the 1950s he worked on Broadway and in television, and was the host of NBC's International Showtime from 1961 to 1965. Returning to film work in his later years, Ameche enjoyed a fruitful revival of his career beginning with his role as a villain in Trading Places (1983) and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Cocoon (1985).
➦In 1943...The comic stripArchie Andrews came to radio on the Blue Network for the first time. Archie, Veronica and the gang remained on network radio for some nine years.
➦In 19??..Longtime Philadelphia and NYC Radio Personality Ross Brittain was born.
Most recently he was working weekends and fill-in at Classic Hits WCBS-FM in NYC. Previously, he was at morning host at then-CBS owned WOGL 98.1 FM in Philly and he's also worked in Atlanta, New Orleans, Cleveland and Hartford as well as NYC. In 1982, Brittain was cohost of the first morning show Ross & Brittain on 77WABC as a Talk station.
In 1984, he teamed with Scott Shannon on the Z100 Morning Zoo on WHTZ 100.3 FM.
Brittain is a former Billboaard and Radio&Records "Personality of The Year".
Mary Margaret McBride
➦In 1949...a crowd of 35,000 people paid tribute to radio personality Mary Margaret McBride at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. McBride was celebrating her 15th year in radio. Her popular radio shows spanned more than 40 years. In the 1940s the daily audience for her housewife-oriented program numbered from six to eight million listeners. She was called "The First Lady of Radio."
McBride first worked steadily in radio for WOR in New York City. In 1937, she launched on the CBS radio network the first of a series of similar and successful shows, now as Mary Margaret McBride.
She interviewed figures well known in the world of arts and entertainment, and politics, with a style recognized as original to herself. She accepted advertising only for products she was prepared to endorse from her own experience, and turned down all tobacco or alcohol products.
She followed this format in regular broadcasts on CBS until 1941, NBC (where her audience numbered in the millions) from then until 1950, ABC from then until 1954, NBC again until 1960, and The New York Herald Tribune's radio broadcasts with a wider audience via syndication.
➦In 1958...guitarist Dick Dale introduced “surf music” for the first time when he played “Let’s Go Trippin'” at a concert in Balboa Calif. Dale died in Loma Linda, CA on March 16, 2019, at age 81.
➦In 1966...filming began on The Monkees TV sitcom. Starting on NBC in September the weekly series chronicled the misadventures of a struggling rock band.
➦In 1999...77WABC-AM, New York, presented "WABC Rewound" where the news/talk station broadcast airchecks from its glory days when it was a Top 40 formatted music station. At first, WABC's early days in the 60s as a Top 40 station were humble ones.
Top 40 1010 WINS was the No. 1 hit music station and WMCA 570 AM, which did a similar rock leaning top 40 format, was also a formidable competitor, while WABC barely ranked in the Top Ten. Fortunately for WABC, the other Top 40 outlets could not be heard as well in more distant New York and New Jersey suburbs, since WINS, WMGM 1050 AM, and WMCA were all directional stations.
WABC, with its 50,000-watt non-directional signal, had the advantage of being heard in places west, south, and northwest of New York City – a huge chunk of the growing suburban population – and this is where the station began to draw ratings.
Early in 1962, WMGM, owned by Loew's, which then owned MGM, was sold to Storer Broadcasting. Upon its sale, WMGM reverted to its original WHN call letters and switched to a middle of the road music format playing mostly non-rock artists such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Andy Williams.
Sam Holman was the first WABC program director of this era. Under Holman, WABC achieved No. 1 ratings during much of 1962, after WMGM reverted to WHN. By the summer of 1963, WMCA led the pack among contemporary stations, with WABC at No. 2 and WINS slipping to third place. It has been said, but is difficult to verify, that WMCA dominated in the city proper, while WABC owned the suburbs. This would be consistent with WMCA's 5,000-watt directional signal.
GM Hal Neal hired Rick Sklar as WABC's program director. He would go on to become a member of the Radio Hall of Fame and be credited as one of the pioneering architects of the Top 40 format.
Under Sklar, the station went to the shortest playlist of any contemporary music station in history. The number one song was heard about every hour during the day and every 75 minutes or so at night. The other top 5 songs were heard nearly as often. Other current songs averaged once to twice per airshift. The station played about 9 current hits per hour and several non-current songs. The non-currents were no more than 5 years old and the station played about 70 of them in total.
Through the years, WABC was known by various slogans, "Channel 77 WABC" and later "Musicradio 77 WABC". Due to the high number of commercials each hour, WABC played no more than two songs in a row and there was frequent DJ talk and personality between every song. The station averaged 6 commercial breaks per hour but they were no more than 3 ads in a row. Often the air personalities delivered live commercials in their own humorous style, so that listeners would consider the spot part of the entertainment.
➦In 2019...After EMF acquired the station on May 31, 2019. WPLJ 95.5 NYC joined the K-LOVE network at 7pm, and now airs Christian contemporary music. K-Love's first piece of audio was a request for listener financial support
Clint Eastwood is 91
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Actor-director Clint Eastwood is 91.
Singer Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary is 83.
Keyboardist Augie Meyers of the Texas Tornadoes and the Sir Douglas Quintet is 81.
Actor Sharon Gless (“Cagney and Lacey”) is 78.
Actor Tom Berenger is 71.
Actor Gregory Harrison is 71.
Actor Kyle Secor (“Homicide: Life on the Street”) is 64.
Actor Roma Maffia (“Nip/Tuck,” ″Profiler”) is 63.
Comedian Chris Elliott is 61.
Actor Lea Thompson (“Caroline in the City,” ″Back to the Future”) is 60.
Lea Thompson is 60
Singer Corey Hart is 59.
Rapper DMC of Run-DMC is 57.
Actor Brooke Shields is 56.
Country bassist Ed Adkins of The Derailers is 54.
“The Amazing Race” host Phil Keoghan is 54.
Jazz bassist Christian McBride is 49.
Actor Archie Panjabi (“The Good Wife”) is 49.
Actor Merle Dandridge (“Greenleaf”) is 46.
Actor Colin Farrell is 45.
Trumpet player Scott Klopfenstein of Reel Big Fish is 44.
Actor Eric Christian Olsen (“NCIS: Los Angeles” is 44.
➦In 1894...John Florence Sullivan was born (Died – March 17, 1956). Known professionally as Fred Allen, he was a comedian. His absurdist, topically pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio.
His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it was only part of his appeal; radio historian John Dunning (in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio) wrote that Allen was radio's most admired comedian and most frequently censored. A master ad libber, Allen often tangled with his network's executives (and often barbed them on the air over the battles) while developing routines whose style and substance influenced fellow comic talents, including Groucho Marx, Stan Freberg, Henry Morgan and Johnny Carson; his avowed fans also included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, humorist James Thurber, and novelists William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Herman Wouk (who began his career writing for Allen).
From 1942...
Allen has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: a radio star at 6713 Hollywood Blvd. and a TV star at 7001 Hollywood Blvd
He later voiced characters for Hanna-Barbera's television cartoons, including Barney Rubble on The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons. Blanc was also the original voice of Woody Woodpecker for Universal Pictures and provided vocal effects for the Tom and Jerry cartoons directed by Chuck Jones for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, replacing William Hanna. During the golden age of radio, Blanc also frequently performed on the programs of famous comedians from the era, including Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen and Judy Canova.
Having earned the nickname The Man of a Thousand Voices, Blanc is regarded as one of the most influential people in the voice acting industry
Mel Blanc and Characters
Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 when in 1927 he debuted as a voice actor on the KGW (Portland OR) program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932, where he met Estelle Rosenbaum (1909 - 2003), whom he married a year later, before returning to Portland. He moved to KEX in 1933 to produce and co-host his Cobweb And Nuts show with his wife Estelle, which debuted on June 15. The program played Monday through Saturday from 11:00 pm to midnight, and by the time the show ended two years later, it appeared from 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm.
With his wife's encouragement, Blanc returned to Los Angeles and joined Warner Bros.-owned KFWB in Hollywood, California, in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show.
Blanc was a regular on the NBC Red Network show The Jack Benny Program in various roles, including voicing Benny's Maxwell automobile (in desperate need of a tune-up), violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny's pet polar bear Carmichael, the tormented department store clerk, and the train announcer. The first role came from a mishap when the recording of the automobile's sounds failed to play on cue, prompting Blanc to take the microphone and improvise the sounds himself. The audience reacted so positively that Benny decided to dispense with the recording altogether and have Blanc continue in that role.
By 1946, Blanc appeared on over 15 radio programs in supporting roles. His success on The Jack Benny Program led to his own radio show on the CBS Radio Network, The Mel Blanc Show, which ran from September 3, 1946, to June 24, 1947. Blanc played himself as the hapless owner of a fix-it shop, as well as his young cousin Zookie.
Blanc also appeared on such other national radio programs as The Abbott and Costello Show, the Happy Postman on Burns and Allen, and as August Moon on Point Sublime. During World War II, he appeared as Private Sad Sack on various radio shows, most notably G.I. Journal. Blanc recorded a song titled "Big Bear Lake."
He passed away on July 10, 1989.
➦In 1917...actor & voiceover artist Peter Leeds was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He appeared on television more than 8,000 times, on radio programs more than 3,000 times, and also had many film and Broadway credits. The majority of his work took place in the 1950s and 1960s,; he was best known as a straight man for funnyman Stan Freberg. Leeds died of cancer Nov. 12 1996 at age 79.
➦In 1922...Smilin' Ed McConnell made his first radio broadcast in Atlanta. He was best known as the host of the children's radio and television series, Smilin' Ed's Gang, closely identified with its sponsor, Buster Brown shoes, and also known as The Buster Brown Program. For his work in radio, McConnell was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Smilin' Ed McConnell
In 1937, he moved to NBC as their "Sunshine Melody Man", offering hymns and uplifting messages. McConnell’s blend of "songs, humor and philosophy" aired over network affiliates at 5:30pm. Guests included the Doring Trio, The Four Grenadiers, The Campus Choir and the Rhythmaires.
McConnell became known in New York City when he was heard over WJZ, though the show was broadcast from Chicago and he lived in Elk Rapids, Michigan.
McConnell grabbed children's attention when he created the character Froggy the Gremlin, performing with Irma Allen on the organ or Del Owen on the piano. Even though McConnell became famous as "Smilin' Ed," he continued to host programs for religious adults. While his Buster Brown show was running, McConnell presided over a five-minute show sponsored by the American Poultry Journal. It reached over 50 stations. Another Smilin' Ed show was a 15-minute program sponsored by the Purity Baking Company.
By 1948, 145 ABC stations were subscribing to his 15-minute programs. Smilin' Ed's humor, songs, and music were condensed into a five-minute program especially for electric lamp dealers. So it is very likely that this series originated after 1948.
➦In 1928...Legendary radio personality Herb Oscar Anderson was born. HOA was the morning drive-time personality on WABC Radio in New York City December 1960 to September 1968. He referred to himself as the Morning Mayor Of New York.
He also worked at KSTP and WDGY St. Paul-Minneapolis during the '50s. Also in the '50s HOA appeared on a number of shows for the ABC Radio network. He started in 1958 at WMCA NYC, worked WMGM in '59 and became the Morning Mayor on WABC in 1960.
HOA died January 29, 2017 at age 88.
➦In 1935…"America's Town Meeting of the Air" was first heard on NBC Blue (the predecessor to ABC radio) for the first time. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the debaters on the opener. The issues-oriented discussion program lasted a total of 21 years, with a name change to America’s Town Meeting of the Air. It was moderated throughout by George V. Denny Jr.
➦In 1943...the "Archie" comic strip was first aired on radio.
➦In 1989...the 20,000th "Rambling with Gambling" Radio show aired on WOR-AM, New York City. (Several generations of Gamblings kept the program going continuously)
John A, John R, John B Gambling
John B. Gambling started the show in March 1925, when WOR was a promotional arm of the Bamberger's department store in Newark. His son, John A. Gambling became host in 1959. He brought his son, John R. Gambling, to the show as co-host from 1985 until his retirement in 1991. John R. Gambling has been solo host since that time.
In September 2000, WOR cancelled the program. At the time, it was the longest continually-running radio broadcast in America, a position now held by the Grand Ole Opry.
After a brief hiatus, WABC hired John R. Gambling.
WOR owned the rights to the name Rambling with Gambling, so the revived show was renamed The John Gambling Show.
In January 2008, WABC laid off Gambling in a cost-cutting measure.
On Wednesday, April 30, 2008, WOR and John R. Gambling announced the return of the show to its original station.
They began broadcasting on Monday, May 5, 2008, from 6 AM to 10 AM. despite the return to WOR.
Gambling retired from WOR radio at the end of 2013, bringing an end to the almost 89-year combined run of The John Gambling Show and Rambling with Gambling.
He has since returned to the NYC airwaves hosting 11am to 1pm on WNYM 970 AM The Answer.
➦In 2014...Radio, TV actress Joan Lorring, who began her career in 1940’s Hollywood radio and was regularly of member of the cast on CBS Radio’s Mystery Theater in the 70’s died at age 88. She was also featured in the early TV series ‘Norby,” and guested in anthology & episodic TV until 1980. Her many small screen appearances included The Star Wagon, a 1966 movie with Dustin Hoffman and Orson Bean, and The Love Boat in 1980.
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY:
Wynonna Judd is 57
Actor Ruta Lee (“High Rollers,” “What’s My Line?”) is 86.
Actor Keir Dullea (“2001: A Space Odyssey”) is 85.
Guitarist Lenny Davidson of The Dave Clark Five is 77.
Actor Stephen Tobolowsky (“Groundhog Day,” ″Sneakers”) is 70.
Actor Colm Meaney (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”) is 68.
Actor Ted McGinley (“Hope and Faith,” ″Married... With Children”) is 63.
Actor Ralph Carter (“Good Times”) is 60.
Actor-filmmaker Tonya Pinkins (“All My Children”) is 59.
Country singer Wynonna Judd is 57.
Guitarist Tom Morello of Audioslave,Rage Against the Machine is 57
Actor Mark Sheppard (“Supernatural”) is 57.
Movie director Antoine Fuqua is 56.
Idina Menzel is 50
Actor John Ross Bowie (“Speechless,” ″The Big Bang Theory”) is 50.
Guitarist Patrick Dahlheimer of Live is 50.
Singer-actor Idina Menzel is 50.
Singer Cee Lo Green (Gnarls Barkley, Goodie Mob) is 46.
Rapper Remy Ma is 41.
Guitarist James Smith of Underoath is 39.
Actress Javicia Leslie (“God Friended Me”) is 34.
Actor Sean Giambrone (“The Goldbergs”) is 22.
Actor Jared Gilmore (“Once Upon a Time,” ″Mad Men”) is 21.
Five-time Grammy award winner and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, B.J. Thomas, died today (Sat, May 29th) at home in Arlington, Texas at the age of 78 from complications due to stage four lung cancer.
According to The Music Universe, few artists have left a more indelible mark on America’s musical landscape than B.J. Thomas. With his smooth, rich voice and unerring song sense, Thomas’s expansive career crossed multiple genres, including country, pop, and gospel, earning him CMA, Dove, and Grammy awards and nominations since his emergence in the 1960s.
Thomas’ career was anchored by numerous enduring hits, among them his million-selling cover of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” the Grammy-winning “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” and the iconic “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” which won the Academy Award for best original song. A five-time Grammy award winner and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, Thomas has sold over 70 million albums worldwide, scoring eight No. 1 hits and 26 Top 10 singles over his 50+ years in the music industry.
His lengthy chart history led to him being named one of Billboard’s Top 50 Most Played Artists Over The Past 50 Years. Such memorable hits as “I Just Can’t Help Believing, “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Whatever Happened To Old Fashioned Love,” “New Looks From An Old Lover” and “Hooked on a Feeling” have made him a staple on multiple radio formats over the years.
Born in rural Hugo, OK, Billy Joe Thomas moved to Houston, Texas with his family and where he grew up absorbing a variety of musical influences from the traditional country of Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams Dr. to the soulful sounds of Jackie Wilson and Little Richard. Thomas’s first taste of success came in 1966 when he recorded “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” with producer Huey P. Meaux. Released by Scepter Records, it peaked at No. 8 on the pop charts and became his first million-selling single. He released the follow-up single, “Mama,” and delivered his first solo album that same year. Thomas’ second million-selling hit came in 1968 with the release of “Hooked on a Feeling,” from On My Way, his sophomore album for Scepter. During his days with the New York label, he became friendly with Ronnie Milsap and Dionne Warwick, who were also on the roster at the time.
It was Warwick who introduced him to songwriter-producer Burt Bacharach. In January 1970, Thomas topped the charts with “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.” Penned by Bacharach and Hal David, the song was featured in the classic Paul Newman/Robert Redford film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, earning the Oscar for best original song. Sales quickly exceeded two million copies and it has remained one of the most enduring pop hits of all time, reoccurring in such films as Forrest Gump, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Clerks II, and Spider-Man 2 as well as multiple TV shows over the years. He followed that career-defining single with a string of pop/rock hits, including “Everybody’s Out of Town,” “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “No Love at All” and “Rock and Roll Lullaby.”
After six years with Scepter Records, Thomas signed with Paramount Records where he released two albums—1973’s Songs and 1974’s Longhorns & Londonbridges. In 1975, Thomas released the album Reunion on ABC Records, featuring “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” which holds the distinction of being the longest titled No. 1 hit ever on Billboard’s Hot 100. Like many successful pop/rock artists, Thomas fell into drugs and battled substance abuse. His wife Gloria became a born-again Christian and the turning point in Thomas’ life came when he became a believer in 1976. He immediately quit drugs and found an avenue for expressing his faith in gospel music.
Besides music, Thomas loved baseball as a kid and started calling himself B.J. because so many Little League teammates also were named Billy Joe. By his teens, he was singing in church and had joined a local rock band, the Triumphs, whom he would stay with into his 20s. He enjoyed Ernest Tubbs, Hank Williams and other country performers his parents liked, but on his own he was inspired by the soul and rhythm and blues singers he heard on the radio or saw on stage, notably Jackie Wilson, whose hit ballad “To Be Loved” Thomas later covered and adopted as a kind of guide to his life.
